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articles in each department; and if there be an unusual demand that is considered unreasonable immediate attention is called to it, and if less demand be made than is usual the department is praised because of its economy. A comparison between the articles used by the European and American countries and those used by Japan shows a decided superiority in those used by the former. They use stationery of surprisingly excellent quality. There is no Government that uses such low-priced paper as the Japanese Government does. I would propose, therefore, an immediate establishment of a Supply Department. We might not be able to have a perfect beginning, but it would enable us to practise financial economy, and the department would get its supplies from within our own country.

The fourth step in the economic policy is that the Government supply should be obtained from our own industry so far as possible. This step needs to be strongly urged. I observed several years ago that almost all the Government offices were using imported paper. We can find an almost equally excellent paper in Senji, Oji, Osaka, and elsewhere in Japan as the imported paper, and I wonder why the high-priced foreign manufactured paper is used instead of that of our own country. If we establish the Government Supply Department, and fix the rate for our paper manufactures, we can get the native paper cheaper and better made, and so, in the end, I think, check the importation of foreign papers. It is the economic policy of European countries to use paper of their own manufacture; our Government, on the contrary, relies mostly upon foreign material, and until this step is altered, we cannot hope to improve our economic condition and to properly develop our industries. Here, I think, the effort of our Government is required in encouraging our manufactures. It should try to check importation from abroad by restricting its supply to those of our own country. This might be objected to on the ground that one yen’s worth of the imported article is equal to 1.20 yen in the home article—that is to say, that the foreign-made article is cheaper than ours by 0.20 yen, or, in other words, our people’s taxes are accordingly affected. Hence checking foreign importation is false economy. This may be true for the present; but suppose if, in the course of a few years, we were able to produce articles precisely the same, in every point of excellence, as the foreign, then the argument would lose force, for the imported articles will have to be insured during their long voyage, and pay for storage and other incidental fees, thus giving a much higher price than could possibly be attached to our own manufacture. The following example will illustrate my view: About four